Mondays with MacDonald (on the Christian response to hell)

by Steve Douglas

July 23rd, 2012 | 11 Comments

“Be ye therefore perfect, even as your father which is in heaven is perfect.” “Love your enemies, and ye shall be the children of the highest.” It is the divine glory to forgive.

Yet a time will come when the Unchangeable will cease to forgive; when it will no more belong to his perfection to love his enemies; when he will look calmly, and have his children look calmly too, upon the ascending smoke of the everlasting torments of our strong brothers, our beautiful sisters! Nay, alas! the brothers are weak now; the sisters are ugly now!

O brother, believe it not. “O Christ!” the redeemed would cry, “where art thou, our strong Jesus? Come, our grand brother. See the suffering brothers down below! See the tormented sisters! Come, Lord of Life! Monarch of Suffering! Redeem them. For us, we will go down into the burning, and see whether we cannot at least carry through the howling flames a drop of water to cool their tongues.”

Believe it not, my brother, lest it quench forgiveness in thee, and thou be not forgiven, but go down with those thy brothers to the torment; whence, if God were not better than that phantom thou callest God, thou shouldst never come out; but whence assuredly thou shalt come out when thou hast paid the uttermost farthing; when thou hast learned of God in hell what thou didst refuse to learn of him upon the gentle-toned earth; what the sunshine and the rain could not teach thee, nor the sweet compunctions of the seasons, nor the stately visitings of the morn and the eventide, nor the human face divine, nor the word that was nigh thee in thy heart and in thy mouth—the story of Him who was mighty to save, because he was perfect in love.

O Father, thou art All-in-all, perfect beyond the longing of thy children, and we are all and altogether thine.

George MacDonald (from his sermon ”Love Thine Enemy”, published in Unspoken Sermons, Series 1, 1867)

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July 23rd, 2012

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  • Jeremy

    I’m on my own journey of questioning the Evangelical/Reformed sacred cows, some of which I was raised with, some of which I picked up on my own. I’m part of a church that would probably react in wide eyed shock if I shared my thoughts on the things they consider “non-negotiables”. Universalism is one of those things. All that to say, as I was reading through your blog yesterday I had the following thought that I jotted down in my journal (aka Evernote :-)

    James 4:17 – Anyone, then, who knows the good he ought to do and doesn’t do it, sins.

    If we ought to reject anything in God that we would consider false and unfair in a man (a’la George MacDonald), wouldn’t this verse apply all the more to God? If it is a supremely good thing when God saves a man from his sin and restores a lost child to himself, then would a God who could ultimately save everyone yet did not be as good as a God who did?

    I’m not yet convinced of any form of universalism, but I can certainly say that one of my deepest hopes is that it is true. Unless someone, while on this side of eternity, has solved the mystery of how they can rejoice at the thought of a loved one suffering eternal conscious torment, I would think the same should be true of all Christians.

    • http://undeception.com/ Steve Douglas

      You know, that’s a great thought, Jeremy. Thanks for chiming in!

  • NW

    It was a significant spiritual breakthrough for me when I became a dogmatic Christian universalist after spending more than ten years of my life affirming ECT, which in retrospect was too horrifying a prospect for the vast majority of humanity to be earnestly believed (memories come to mind of preachers chiding congregations for their evangelistic apathy and acting as if the eternal destinies of their neighbors weren’t on the line; in retrospect, I think we all knew deep in our bones somewhere that no one’s “eternal” destiny was “on the line” in the way the preachers insisted). One of the more significant side-effects of incorporating universalism into one’s theology is that it brings with it an added patience and compassion for all people on the basis that God truly loves all people and will eventually reconcile all of them to himself, not to mention an increased sense of love and admiration for the Lord who will have the victory over the hearts of all people. On the other hand, I don’t think these benefits come from an easy
    universalism that simply rejects the idea of eschatological punishment
    as absurd, there’s not shortcut to true spiritual growth.

    When I first told my wife about the change in my theology she told me that she felt as I had left our religion. And maybe I had! I am still working on her; sadly, the Lord has yet to give her eyes to see in this matter.

    • http://undeception.com/ Steve Douglas

      NW, you said:

      One of the more significant side-effects of incorporating universalism into one’s theology is that it brings with it an added patience and compassion for all people on the basis that God truly loves all people and will eventually reconcile all of them to himself, not to mention an increased sense of love and admiration for the Lord who will have the victory over the hearts of all people.

      A thousand amens to that. I find that for problems I see in other people that I can’t help resolve, I rest in God like never before.

      On the other hand, I don’t think these benefits come from an easy universalism that simply rejects the idea of eschatological punishment as absurd, there’s not shortcut to true spiritual growth.

      This is why it took MacDonald’s articulation of what might be called “hard” univeralism to convert me. I have found that despite the oft-supposed danger that universalism breeds lackadaisical attitudes toward spiritual discipline and holiness, for my own issues I have a much more attractive and even higher standard to attain to, and so find myself yearning more than ever to emulate this more wonderful God.

      • NW

        Steve,

        As do I, Christian universalism has unexpectedly pushed me to pursue holiness and grow spiritually in ways that my previous theology did not and perhaps because I have held on to eschatological punishment as an important aspect of my theology. But I don’t think an easy universalism would have this effect.

        I’ve yet to read MacDonald outside of the excerpts you’ve posted on this blog but definitely plan on doing so given the recommendations of yourself and Lewis. In my case, I was studying Paul when the scales fell from eyes, he was so clear about the matter in Rom 5:18, 1 Cor 15:20-28, and 1 Tim 2:4 that to this day I’m not sure how I missed it for so long (I must have been blinded by the many tricks the church has used to obscure the plain and obvious meaning of these verses).

  • Jeremy

    Steve (or anyone else), do you happen to know of any good resources for learning more about a “hard” universalism? I’m finding that I have lots of questions regarding specific versus and the like that probably aren’t best suited for this format…

    • http://undeception.com/ Steve Douglas

      My main source has been George MacDonald’s writings. By far his most important writing on the subject is “Justice” (oh, please do make it all the way through it…it’s worth it); his sermons “The Consuming Fire” and “The Last Farthing” are also very helpful to explain why I believe that a belief in the ultimate reconciliation of all to God doesn’t entail letting anyone “off the hook” easily.

      For some lighter reading ;-) you can read my short series touching on this very heavily, complied into a single PDF here. Please feel free to let me know if you have any questions.

      • Jeremy

        Thanks Steve, I’ll definitely check out MacDonald’s stuff. I actually just finished reading through the entire blog in chronological order. It’s been tremendously helpful and I’m glad I found it when I did. I really appreciate you taking the time to share your journey. It’s definitely helping me on mine!

        • http://undeception.com/ Steve Douglas

          What the…? The entire blog? As in, all the posts? Yikes!!

          • Jeremy

            Heh heh. Yep! Not in one sitting or anything. I would read a few pages or so a day, sprinkled in with my other reading. It was uncanny how similarly my thoughts have evolved on various topics. It was tremendously helpful to hear from someone else in a similar situation as there aren’t many people in my circle I can talk to about this stuff.

          • http://undeception.com/ Steve Douglas

            Then you know more about my belief history than I do! I try to forget as much of my old posts as I can.

            And yeah, I don’t have many people in my circles that I can discuss my journey with, either –unless you count my Google+ circles. ;-) I’m glad the site’s been useful for you.